ABSTRACT
“While personal attributes and strategies may have an important effect on power acquisition,… structure imposes the ultimate constraints on the individual” (Brass, 1984, p. 518). If power is indeed, first and foremost, a structural phenomenon (Pfeffer, 1981), it is surprising that so much research on politics in organizations has taken a behavioral or cognitive approach focusing on individual aptitudes and political tactics and strategies (see Chapter 1 in this volume). This chapter attempts to remedy that shortcoming by presenting a structural, social network approach to power and politics in organizations. While not slighting all that has been learned via behavioral and cognitive approaches to politics, it is argued that the structure of social networks strongly affects the extent to which personal attributes, cognition, and behavior result in power in organizations.
